Reasons for hospitalization in diabetic patients in the Internal Medicine Service of the Regional Hospital of Ciudad del Este in 2016

Abstract

Introduction: diabetes mellitus is a chronic non-communicable disease described since ancient times, in which the metabolism of carbohydrates is mainly altered. Paraguay faces a significant social deficit regarding the Millennium Development Goals. The latest mortality data is from 2015, with diabetes mellitus in 2nd place as the cause of death of the general population from 2013 to 2015.

Objectives: identify the main reasons for hospitalization, and the demographic distribution according to sex and age of diabetic patients in the Medical Clinic Service of the Regional Hospital of Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, in the year 2016.

Materials and methods: the study was carried out during the months of April to October 2018, at the Regional Hospital of Ciudad del Este. The population corresponded to all patients admitted to the inpatient ward of the aforementioned healthcare center in the aforementioned period with a diagnosis of DM corroborated by corresponding laboratory tests. All patients who met the diagnostic criteria for diabetes were included: fasting serum glucose equal to or greater than 126 mg/dl, serum glucose greater than 200 mg/dl at any time with clinical symptoms of diabetes and glycated hemoglobin> 6.5 %. All those patients who did not meet these criteria were excluded.

Results: 245 patients diagnosed with DM were found, of which 241 were included. The mean age of all the patients was 59.92 years, the standard deviation 14.71, with the minimum age being 15 years and the maximum of 90 years. The patients who were admitted for infectious pictures were 126, which meant 52% of the total. The patients admitted for other causes, other than some type of infection, were 115 patients, which represented 48%. Among the patients admitted for infectious and non-infectious causes, other subgroups were discriminated by affected systems and etiologies. The main cause of admission was skin and soft tissue infections with a total of 61 (25.3%), and there were 43 (17.5%) patients with lower limb infection, of which 22 (9 1%) presented diabetic foot. The least frequent causes were those of the gastrointestinal, hematological, and osteoarthrotic-muscular systems, which accounted for one (0.4%) patient each.

Conclusions: the main cause of hospitalization of diabetic people hospitalized in the Medical Clinic Service in 2016 was due to infection of white parts with 61 patients (25.3%), and 43 (17.5%) of these due to infection of the lower limb and 22 (9.1%) due to diabetic foot. The demographic determination according to sex was 127 (53%) female and 114 (47%) male. The mean age of all the patients was 59.92 years, the standard deviation 14.71, with the minimum age being 15 years and the maximum being 90 years.